HUMAN BONES IN THE CAVE OF CRO-MAGNON. 73 



VII. 



AX ACCOUNT OF THE HUMAN BONES FOUND IN THE CAVE OF CRO-MAGNON IN 



DORDOGNE. Br Dr. PRUNER-BEY. 



[C. PIATES I.- VI.*] 

 PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 



IMMEDIATELY on the discovery of this Cave it was rumoured that seven human 

 skeletons had been found ; but, with the most scrupulous care, only those of four 

 adults and one immature infant have been recognized. 



There are more or less perfect skulls, and some bones of the extremities, of 

 three full-grown individuals, together with ribs, vertebrae, and fragments of a 

 pelvis and of a collar-bone. Of a fourth individual there remain only some 

 remains of the calvarium, half of the upper alveolar process, and a piece of the 

 jaw. Judging from the^e fragments, this latter person appears to have been a 

 female ; and, since one of the above-mentioned crania is also that of a female, 

 the four adults were two men and two women. Moreover there are some bones 

 belonging to a foetus. 



As the bones differ in condition only with the matrix surrounding them, and 

 as they were found at the same level, we may conclude that they were buried 

 either at the same time or at short intervals. The small number of the bones 

 leads us to suppose that we have here to do with a family burial-place ; and this 

 supposition is strengthened by the marked agreement of the cranial characters. 



Among this collection of bones the skeleton of an old man, possibly the head 

 of the family, has better resisted decomposition than the others, having been 

 protected by a thin coating of stalagmite. Everything remaining of the other 

 individuals is more or less imperfect. 



Lastly, all these human bones, now carefully hardened by M. Stahl, presented, 

 before being prepared, absolutely the same aspect and the same specific gravity 

 (from want of gelatine &c.) as the bones of Reindeer and other animals with 

 which they were associated. 



I shall divide my Memoir on these osseous remains into two Parts, the first 

 being analytical, and the other synthetical. The First Part (Chapters I. and II.) 



* The artist has produced reversed figures of the Skulls aud Bones on these Plates. 



M 



